<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/28/iran-new-president-masoud-pezeshkian-rekindles-feint-hopes-of-rapprochement-with-west>
"Iran’s new president has been formally inaugurated by the supreme leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, opening up the slim hope of improved relations with the
west, less internal censorship and a fresh approach to the economy.
In a ceremony on Sunday marking the start of his four-year presidency, Masoud
Pezeshkian said the Iranian people had voted for change and promised
constructive engagement with the west, a step he regards as a precondition for
Tehran curbing inflation and securing growth.
Elected in a runoff on 5 July on a turnout of 49.7%, Pezeshkian, a reformist,
is expected to make a raft of cabinet appointments in the next few days,
including a new foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi. In his first official act in
office, Pezeshkian appointed Mohammad Reza Aref, 72, a reformist and close ally
of the former president, as his first vice-president.
At the inauguration ceremony in Tehran attended by diplomats and Iran’s
political elite, Khamenei, the man that sets the parameters of Iranian policy,
said it would be a foreign policy priority to remain close to countries that
had supported Iran during the period of sanctions. But he said he did not rule
out closer relations with European powers if they modified their behaviour.
Khamenei, broadly an advocate of looking to the east for Iran’s partners, said
many European powers had been “behaving badly to us” through the imposition of
oil sales embargos and by launching fake attacks on human rights. He praised
Pezeshkian as a deserving president, saying he was “wise, popular, honest and
scholarly”.
Pezeshkian, a medical surgeon, parliamentarian and briefly a health minister,
has no intention of differing with Khamenei in public, knowing the supreme
Leader is ideologically closer to conservatives such as Pezeshkian’s
predecessor as president, Ebrahim Raisi.
Raisi’s death in a helicopter accident in May upended Iranian politics, but it
remains unclear how far Pezeshkian will go in challenging some of the
suppressive norms of Iranian society. He also faces a rightwing parliament that
will be quick to pounce on his mistakes, and as a result is making every effort
to emphasise political unity.
In two encouraging signs, the former reformist president Mohammad Khatami met
with Pezeshkian to discuss appointments and the dissident Majid Tavakoli was
released from jail pending a retrial after his six-year sentence. On the other
hand, the revolutionary court has just issued a death sentence against Pakhshan
Azizi, a Kurdish political prisoner held in Tehran’s Evin Prison."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
